PORT CARBON - The first bottles of America's Oldest Brewery's newest seasonal brew came off the line at the Mill Creek plant on Thursday just in time for the upcoming spring and summer weather.

Robert Seaman Jr., plant manager at Yuengling, said Thursday that Yuengling Summer Wheat will be hitting retail in the next week. It comes after the brewery has been brewing seasonals for a few years, with Bock and Oktoberfest, and is a beer that fits with the company's German heritage.

"We think it fits the company well," Seaman said. "It fits the consumer desires pretty well, and I think with everything that's going on out there in the craft industry and consumers desires in terms of flavor change that the seasonal beers are definitely something we can offer."

Summer Wheat is described as a traditional hefeweizen beer, brewed with a Hallertau hops, a combination of wheat and barley malts and an authentic Bavarian-style top fermenting yeast.

"It's typically a refreshing summer-time drink, that's what's key," he said. "It's got some banana and clove aroma to it. Those flavors that make it unique are really contributed by the yeast strain. That was the driving force behind it."

A sessionable 3.59 alcohol percent by weight, it also has a low IBU, or International Bitterness Unit, of 12.

IBUs measure the bitterness of beer provided by the hops used during brewing, so the higher the number, the greater the bitterness.

"With wheat beer in Germany, they're from two different regions," Seaman said. "Southern Germany is fairly well-known for wheat beer like a hefeweizen, then there's the northern German wheat beer called a berliner weisse. This is a southern true authentic Bavarian-style wheat beer."

Seaman said that with the Yuengling family originally immigrating from southern Germany and Richard L. "Dick" Yuengling, president and owner of the brewery, having travelled to Germany, where he tasted some wheat beers and enjoyed them, "Mr. Yuengling" was open minded to the idea of the new seasonal.

Besides coming up with a new recipe, the beer was said to be a huge undertaking for Yuengling in the sense that it changed yeast strains and is now handling a second yeast strain.

"That was a big challenge to get past and a lot of work internally to keep our yeast strains separate and keep our other brands safe as well," Seaman said. "I think it's helped us prove we can make as good a beer as anyone else out there in a style other than pilsner or lager."

The "traditional weizen beer" is currently only being brewed at the facility in Mill Creek near Port Carbon, but to the best of Seaman's knowledge, will be available in all states except the New England states that were part of the brewery's recent push north.

While Yuengling was planning to send bottles of the new beer out of the plant Thursday and Friday, it already sent out kegs of Summer Wheat, so it's already available at some local restaurants and bars.

"We did about 26,000 barrels of wheat beer in about a month and a half," Seaman said. "It's taken away from our volume on other brands and it's been a challenge, but I think without having done the expansion a few years ago, it would have made it much more difficult."

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